The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-05-30
WOMEN AS TYPEwRITERs.
A Field of Labor in Which the Demand
is Greater Than the Supply.

is Greater Than the Supply.
New York, May 2S-Here is a bit of
good news for girls and young women 1t
was told me of the teacher of the best type
writing school in the city, woman of the
highest integrity, ability and an expert
shorthand writer and typewriter. She
says the demand for young women who can
use the typewriter is far IN excess of the
supply. A very superior class of young
women have adopted the typewriter bust
ness as profession. Many of a class who
formerly adopted teaching as a profession
are now taking up the business of stenogra-
ply and typewriting and are occupying very
high positions as such in insurance COM
panies, law offices and in most of the large
corporations. Experts In these offices earn
from $12 to $50 week. The salary of one
who understands typewriting alsne does
not usually go beyond SIS, although there
are some expert typewriters who earn as
high as $50 week. Expert typewriters
who can take dictation are even more rare
than stenographers. Many persons engaged
in other professions, such as artists, music
teachers, etc, purchase typewriter and do
piecework, thus supplementing their income
1t is a great mistake to suppose that type
writer operators need no special training
The ease with which the Keyboard and the
mechanical part of the typewriter is learned
that no instructions are required to make a
good typewriter operator. On the con-
trary, to do neat work on the typewriter
and also to take dictation requires a special
kind of lingering and touch almost as well
timed as is required in the manipulation OF
the piano. Persons familiar with type
writer copies will notice a great difference
in the work of different operators, and
the good work can almost invariably be
traced to an operator who has had a thor
ough, systematic training, the poor work to
M operator who has taught herself. There
is great difference in the individuals in re
gard TO the time required to make an ex-
pert operator. An operator who can take a
maximum of seventy-fve words a minute
must have had two years practice from the
time she commenced to study. The speed at
which a woman can take dictation depends
on the amount of practice she has had in die
tation and also on her acuteness of hearing.
A person of superior hearing would reach
this speed in less time.
The typewritipg business is almost en-
tirely in the hands of women, although
within few years il has been entered into
by a few of the other sex. Several women
in this city have offices i'm different build
tngs and employ large number of opera
tors. One woman has six offices in six
different buildings, employs about fifteen
young women on salaries, and has connected
with her hundreds of stenographers and
operators who work by the piece. These
operators are supplied from large training
school connected with the business. They
spend from three to six months in the
school room. They are then taken
up in the busnass office and put
under an Office training Most Of
them remain in business offices until they
are either received in that business or placed
in other positions After this office training
they command excellent salaries. The wo-
man referred to was obliged TO commence
this Office training in order to have opera
tors for her own offices. A large number of
persons are rushing into the typewriting
copying business, but as two-thirds
Of them are poorly trained, out of every
500 who attempt to learn it there
are probably not more than fifty good,
vell-frained instructors. At the present
time the large typewriter offices in the
city are unable 20 GET experts enough to sup